Hiva Ho

Spouting rocks, drunken artists, pedophiles, and some new friends, ancient Gods and CANNIBALS

After a few very peaceful days in Fatu Hiva we had to drag ourselves away to Hiva Ho and make our presence in French Polynesia legal, by checking in.

It is only a days fast sail north, never the less we left a little late ran out of wind and arrived upon the shores of Hiva Ho in the pitch dark. Something I hate doing from sailing in the West Indies where there is nar' a light house from Cuba to Venezuela, not so here in 'France' we were greeted by working light houses... so nice..

FARRFLY met many of her new friends in the crowded official harbour  for the nearby village of
Atuona... Gradiva, Kite, Ri Ri, Remedy, all crossed at the same time as we did.

Paul Gauguin; artist, womaniser, pedophile, boozer and general chancer.

Gauguin lived, worked, pillaged and died here in Hiva Ho. There is a very nice small museum here showing his life history and on display are printed copies of much of his work. The gallery is a credit to the people of the small village. History records that he 'purchased or borrowed' a 13 year old girl from her parents in return for a sewing machine...

Grave of Paul Gaugin

One of Gaugins better works. Personally I don't
think he was much of an artist. It is his subjects who were and are interesting.
Gauguin was the first artist out here. Today it would be like sending a mad drunkard  to
paint Martians. Everyone would want one. ( A painting, not a Martian.)

                                        

                                         Birthday Boy

The birthday boy.. It was Tonys birthday so we spoiled him.... in the local Chinese.
The only restaurant in town..

      Baie Hanaiapa;

Then we were off again, This time to Hanaiapa, a large bay on the north of Hiva Ho. And yet another spectacular place.. only one other yacht and it left.. At its entrance is the 'Roche Fatutue' which has many faces, as you can clearly see from this single photo,,,

arty farty foto

                              The spouting rock of Hanaiapa

We stayed in this idillic bay for a few days, as we had it all to ourselves. The village was yet another perfect Marquises village. No litter, no crime, fruit everywhere. A basketball court and a football pitch, a stream, a tiny church and one shop.. naturally with no sign on the door, the Marquisens don't 'do' signage. 










Ancient statues, new treasures, pine trees, and foreboding places.

Pine trees in the tropics? The mountains are so high it is cool enough.
Settlers imported pine trees which have thrived at the top of the mountains
in the moist cool air.

Ancient Tikis of The Marquises islands;
There are a number of fascinating old religious sites on some of the islands. These priceless statue Tikis are simply sitting in fields, un-guarded. It is a small miracle they have not been stolen. One must suspect that the originals have been carted into hiding and replaced with copies...but no, they are all original.. I was even tempted my self!! Nothing better on the mantlepiece than the average dime a dozen 1500 year old Polynesian Tiki God...
Now I have to say they are located in some pretty extreme places, but we found them... 

Ancient stone Tiki God

Smiling Tiki

Spooky sacrificial site, completely intact, you can still smell the virgins blood.

 In the photo below, this bay looks OK, however as night fell, the wind started to howl on to the shore.. where there is the ancient spooky burial ground (above) where cannibalistic/sacrificial  rituals took place... no doubt the phallic symbol has not been lost on you either.. The Polynesians were cannibals up to 100 years ago and were way ahead of 'Eyes Wide Shut' when it came to pleasing the Gods...
So we legged it... sailed off into the darkness... glad to get out of there..
The locals say the Tikis are cursed and anyone taking or even moving them is doomed... glad we didn't give into our temptation.
The place was scary enough and we only took...................................
photos.

So where did we go... The forgotten island of Ua Huka of course, where else would you go in a gale in the middle of the night after getting a dose of the hee-gee-bees.?
Well there is a reason for everything.. We heard a story there was a stonemason there, one of the last who can carve Tikis out of stone... 
Well we got there, got drenched trying to land the dingy on a rocky shore in 35 knots of wind, found the stonemason and the nice local craft shed, which half the village opened for us.. all 10 of them... but alas, no stone Tikis.. they had been sent to Tahiti to sell. However they had a treasure trove of beautiful hand made and carved local spears, a canoe paddle with a bone stem, a drum, a wood carved Tiki that weighed a ton... After not much wheeling and dealing.. Polynesians don't negotiate.. we headed back to the ship with our new treasures.. Got soaked again!
And so we set off on 'The Trail of the Stone Tikis' sent to Tahiti... more of that later....

Some little treasures.. but no stone Tiki

The stonemason/wood carver big guy in the middle.

So with our lucky wooden Tiki on board, without further adoo, we set off again, flying visits to these islands... next stop Ua Pou... where ever that Gotham City is..


So that brings us to the end of this little tale as we anchored for the night in the lee of a stormy Ua Pou and decided not to go ashore but rather press on for the Tuamotus. It seems that farrflys erratic owner had suddenly developed a sense of urgency....  So off into the howling gale went  the gallant crew and their little ship ... bound for the Atol Makemo.. She lay 450 miles to the south west, in 30-40 knots of wind... well alas.... they never made it...